Got cold feet & hit RTH….

[Squidinc]

Hi all,
So I’ve got my new Air3 and loving it, coupled with the RC2. I read it has a 20km (12.42 miles) range… impressive! So I planned out a 10.6km (6.5 mile) waypoints mission on the RC2 and went to fly it.

Decided to go directly to the point marked with the red arrow then follow the beach home. At about 3km (1.9 miles) I was having second thoughts whether the battery would get me home, or if did, it would be just? The wind was very slight and OCUSYNC 4 was full signal strength the whole flight.

Did I panic for no reason, or did I save my Air3?

 

[msinger]

Did I panic for no reason, or did I save my Air3?

With 58% battery left on landing, you likely didn't save the day. However, it's probably best to not push the battery to its limit when flying over water.

 

[slup]

...Did I panic for no reason, or did I save my Air3?

I'm not following you... why did you panic & what did you save your Air 3 from by landing it with 58% remaining?

 

[Squidinc]

I'm not following you... why did you panic & what did you save your Air 3 from by landing it with 58% remaining?

Hi,
I was flying for the most part over water, and was approximately 25% of the way through the flight. Figured I may have only had about two minutes of battery if I had completed the entire flight? Maybe I’ve miss read it?
Cheers,
Paul

 

[MARK (LI)]

Better to be safe than sorry...did you get any video while she was still up in the air?

 

[slup]

Hi,
I was flying for the most part over water, and was approximately 25% of the way through the flight. Figured I may have only had about two minutes of battery if I had completed the entire flight? Maybe I’ve miss read it?
Cheers,
Paul

Your conclusion may have been correct about the calculated remaining battery if you had proceeded... but where you turned, it wasn't any need for panic.

But agree with @msinger , why try out the extremes over water where a mistake costs you the drone. Furthermore... the conditions where your drone is flying is a unknown variable, you really don't know accurate enough how the wind will affect the battery consumption, which is important especially flying over water with nowhere to emergency land & flying until the "very last drops of voltage left in the tank"... which also means that you will struggle with a drone that will try to "low voltage auto land" right there in the end where you are begging for it to make it the whole way home.

Doing tests like this (the legal aspects set aside...) require you to be very sure about what you're doing & how your drone behaves/reacts... & plan for a failure by having the possibility to emergency land & go pick it up.

 

[mobilehomer]

I STRONGLY suggest you read the manual several times, especially the RTH section until you completely understand it before your next flight.

 

[MARK (LI)]

@Squidinc Was the battery that you were using freshly charged to capacity?

 

[Squidinc]

@Squidinc Was the battery that you were using freshly charged to capacity?

Yes. Fully & freshly charged

 

[Squidinc]

I STRONGLY suggest you read the manual several times, especially the RTH section until you completely understand it before your next flight.

@mobilehomer I STRONGLY suggest you read my question several times. It wasn’t about RTH, which BTW I understand.

 

[Squidinc]

Your conclusion may have been correct about the calculated remaining battery if you had proceeded... but where you turned, it wasn't any need for panic.

But agree with @msinger , why try out the extremes over water where a mistake costs you the drone. Furthermore... the conditions where your drone is flying is a unknown variable, you really don't know accurate enough how the wind will affect the battery consumption, which is important especially flying over water with nowhere to emergency land & flying until the "very last drops of voltage left in the tank"... which also means that you will struggle with a drone that will try to "low voltage auto land" right there in the end where you are begging for it to make it the whole way home.

Doing tests like this (the legal aspects set aside...) require you to be very sure about what you're doing & how your drone behaves/reacts... & plan for a failure by having the possibility to emergency land & go pick it up.

Thanks for your comments. I had actually planned to return from the farthest waypoint via the beach, which was longer in distance but not over the water.

 

[mobilehomer]

@mobilehomer I STRONGLY suggest you read my question several times. It wasn’t about RTH, which BTW I completely understand.

Your OP showed a complete misunderstanding of RTH. The drone will exit waypoints and return if the battery level is marginal.

 

[Squidinc]

Your OP showed a complete misunderstanding of RTH. The drone will exit waypoints and return if the battery level is marginal.

@mobilehomer Define marginal? I certainly wasn’t going to wait and see if it would trigger a “Low Battery RTH” when I was 3klm out over the ocean!

 

[MARK (LI)]

OP states in first sentence that the drone is new....so probably uncertain what would happen, especially when quick math shows that he had used over 40% of the battery power to complete only 25% of the trip.....using that information, bringing it back rather than complete the trip makes sense to me....even though if it had proceeded on planned route...it would have landed on the beach...we live and learn.....Possibly, the wind was working against him?

 

[orionshooter]

OP states in first sentence that the drone is new....so probably uncertain what would happen, especially when quick math shows that he had used over 40% of the battery power to complete only 25% of the trip.....using that information, bringing it back rather than complete the trip makes sense to me....even though if it had proceeded on planned route...it would have landed on the beach...we live and learn.....Possibly, the wind was working against him?

Hi all,
So I’ve got my new Air3 and loving it, coupled with the RC2. I read it has a 20km (12.42 miles) range… impressive! So I planned out a 10.6km (6.5 mile) waypoints mission on the RC2 and went to fly it.

Decided to go directly to the point marked with the red arrow then follow the beach home. At about 3km (1.9 miles) I was having second thoughts whether the battery would get me home, or if did, it would be just? The wind was very slight and OCUSYNC 4 was full signal strength the whole flight.

Did I panic for no reason, or did I save my Air3?

Trust your inner voice (or foot temperature) especially if the worse that happens is you live to fly another day.

 

[Melvoid]

I agree with trusting your inner voice. Murphy's Law would dictate that IF something is going to go wrong, it will be whey you're flying over water, a deep canyon, or some other area where it would be catastrophic if anything went awry.

 

[orionshooter]

I agree with trusting your inner voice. Murphy's Law would dictate that IF something is going to go wrong, it will be whey you're flying over water, a deep canyon, or some other area where it would be catastrophic if anything went awry.

Awww come on Mel…tell us how you know that!

 

[Melvoid]

Awww come on Mel…tell us how you know that!

OK. Long time ago. I started with a cheap quadcopter just to see if I'd like it. I live in the woods. On its second flight, I got brave enough to go above the trees and it was immediately taken away by the wind and disappeared into the forest. Luckily it was cheap, and it gave me just enough of a taste to go get my first Phantom... which could hold its own against some wind. I've been pretty lucky since, but only because I'm not terribly daring. But just yesterday, I got daring and flew my Mavic over 800 feet away from where I was. It returned successfully.

 

[Dale D]

Hi all,
So I’ve got my new Air3 and loving it, coupled with the RC2. I read it has a 20km (12.42 miles) range… impressive! So I planned out a 10.6km (6.5 mile) waypoints mission on the RC2 and went to fly it.

Decided to go directly to the point marked with the red arrow then follow the beach home. At about 3km (1.9 miles) I was having second thoughts whether the battery would get me home, or if did, it would be just? The wind was very slight and OCUSYNC 4 was full signal strength the whole flight.

Did I panic for no reason, or did I save my Air3?

I'm reading this and thinking, can he really see his drone? You're a lot braver pilot than I will ever be.

 

[Droning on and on...]

Doing tests like this (the legal aspects set aside...) require you to be very sure about what you're doing & how your drone behaves/reacts... & plan for a failure by having the possibility to emergency land & go pick it up.

Years ago when I did range tests, this is exactly how I would do them... along the coast, unobstructed signal the entire flight.

I did put a Mavic Air in the drink, when I pushed it all the way to critical battery forced landing, and was just short by about 100 yards getting back to dry sand. Lost it.

After that, I spent a little time examining Google Maps and identifying a good emergency landing spot on shore I could go to about every mile, with idea I would head to one of those at 25% battery.

A lot has changed since then, tighter rules, RID, etc., so I don't do those flights any more.